Laura Nichols

Participatory program planning: including program participants and evaluators

Abstract Many evaluators have written about the usefulness of including stakeholders and program participants in the design and implementation of program evaluations. Policy makers are also beginning to see benefits of including those most affected by policies in their work. However, there has been little attention paid to program planning and how future program participants can assist in the process. Because of their knowledge of program design and their experience with participatory evaluations, many evaluators are well equipped to conduct participatory program planning. Including future program participants and evaluators in program planning could not only improve programs, but also allow for evaluative measures to be included and utilized in the design and administration of new programs. Presented in this paper is a generalizable program planning model that includes participants in eight planning components. Some of the pitfalls of participatory work as well as examples of how participatory planning could be used in various contexts are provided.

Bridging and bonding capital: pluralist ethnic relations in Silicon Valley

Proclaims that in recent years there has been considerable research examining the benefits of social connectedness for a variety of outcomes, such as health and general well being. Argues, while bonding capital is beneficial to the self‐interest of the individual or small group, bridging capital is what is necessary to build a collective identity as a nation. Concludes that because people have varying access, with regard to formal organizations, their ability to use social capital for their benefit, and the benefit of their communities, may be of short‐term duration.

The Implications of Welfare Reform for Housing and School Instability.

To determine the potential influence of welfare reform on housing instability, which influences school instability, the results of studies on the housing outcomes of welfare recipients are discussed. State studies suggest that welfare reform has increased the rates of family mobility, evictions, and the likelihood of sharing housing. The effects on homelessness are difficult to assess. Limited research on housing and child outcomes, combined with few resources for housing assistance and a lack of affordable housing, suggest that housing instability and homelessness will continue to be a major issue for families living in poverty, further increasing childrens school instability. When welfare became a federal public aid system in 1935, its intent and focus was to ensure the well-being of children by providing families with financial stability. The government gave cash and benefits to single mothers (mainly widows) to make sure they would have the minimal financial supports necessary to stay home and raise their children (Gordon, 1994). The purpose of welfare reform, as articulated in the Personal Responsibility and Work Opportunity Reconciliation Act of 1996 (PRWORA), has changed that focus. Welfare has become an attempt to reform parents (a large proportion of whom are never-married mothers and fathers) to be financially responsible to their children by paying child support, working, and marrying. By imposing time limits on benefit receipt and requiring work in exchange for resources, welfare reform dramatically changed the nature and intent of social safety nets for children in the United States. As welfare reform was signed into law, some policymakers, academicians, and social service providers predicted increased demand for shelter and emergency food services and a dramatic rise in the numbers of homeless children. Such outcomes would inevitably lead to greater school instability and negative outcomes for children touched by welfare reform (Hartman, 2002). Housing instability and frequent school changes have been linked to lower reading and math skill achievement and greater rates of school dropouts (U.S. General Accounting Office, 1994). If the suspected negative effects of a compromised safety net under welfare reform occur, we assume that children will bear the brunt of the suffering. This is particularly the case if their educational opportunities, one of the few universal guarantees for those living in poverty, are further limited or disrupted. In this article, we attempt to determine what housing stability and homelessness look like under the restricted social safety net created with welfare reform. We ask: Given the dire outcomes predicted, what has occurred? And what are the subsequent implications of these effects for childrens school outcomes? RESEARCH FINDINGS ON HOUSING INSTABILITY Because Congress did not mandate federal monitoring of housing outcomes as part of the limited post-welfare reform data collected, we must rely on studies conducted by states, advocacy groups, and other researchers. These studies differ markedly in terms of who is followed and contacted (former, current, and/or potential future TANF1 recipients), questions asked, and whether results are compared to outcomes pre-PRWORA. Nonetheless, we compile these studies, noting potential methodological weaknesses, in an attempt to draw some conclusions about the effects of welfare reform and to consider the possible unintended impacts of the law on children. Before beginning the analysis, we must note that families who live in poverty often experience housing instability. Frequent moves, moving in with family and friends, and the loss of basic utilities such as electricity and phone are common. In the following sections, we focus on studies conducted with those impacted by welfare reform and examine rates of moving, ability to pay housing costs, eviction rates, and homelessness. Moving Welfare recipients experienced problems with housing stability prior to welfare reform, and these problems continue in the current policy environment. …

The Economic Resource Receipt of New Mothers

U.S. federal policies do not provide a universal social safety net of economic support for women during pregnancy or the immediate postpartum period but assume that employment and/or marriage will protect families from poverty. Yet even mothers with considerable human and marital capital may experience disruptions in employment, earnings, and family socioeconomic status postbirth. We use the National Survey of Families and Households to examine the economic resources that mothers with children ages 2 and younger receive postbirth, including employment, spouses, extended family and social network support, and public assistance. Results show that many new mothers receive resources postbirth. Marriage or postbirth employment does not protect new mothers and their families from poverty, but education, race, and the receipt of economic supports from social networks do.

Pushing and Pulling Emerging Adults through College: College Generational Status and the Influence of Parents and Others in the First Year

Interview, survey, and academic transcript data with a diverse sample of first-generation college (FGC) and continuing generation college (CGC) premedical intended emerging adults are analyzed to study academic outcomes and any differences in the availability and use of social capital the first year of college. CGC students know many people with college degrees including those in careers they aspire to obtain, while FGC students do not. All students identify parents as very important forms of social capital who contribute to their success in college, but the types of support differs by educational background. Students whose parents have at least a bachelor’s degree (CGC) are “pulled” through their first year with specific advice from their parents about how to succeed in college, while FGC students are “pushed” by their parents with support. In addition, CGC students display evidence of enacting Lareau’s concept of concerted cultivation, being much more likely than FGC students to approach and gain assistance from professors, openly critiquing those professors and classes in which they are not doing well and showing a sense of entitlement to and confidence in their ability to stay on the premedical track, even when receiving low test scores.

Hop on the Bus: Driving Stratification Concepts Home

The purpose of experiential education is to combine experience and learning in ways that transform both (Carver 1996; Giles and Eyler 1994; Kolb 1984). Students have experiences outside the classroom, and these experiences are integrated into the course curriculum, enriching both the experience and the class material. Successful experiential education assignments must first provide students with the background they need to fully take advantage of the experience as well as the time and knowledge to help them reflect on what they see (HironimusWendt and Lovell-Troy 1999; Hollis 2002; Mooney and Edwards 2001). Concepts related to social stratification and inequality are demonstrated particularly well through exercises and experiences both in and outside the classroom (for examples see: Bohmer and Briggs 1991; Folse 2002; Grant et al. 1981; Groves, Warren, and Witschger 1996; Hartung 1991; Luske 1998; Manning, Price, and Rich 1997; McCammon 1999; Misra 1997; Scarce 1997; Sernau 1995; Straus 1986; Wright 2000). For classes with content on social stratification and inequality, opportunities to see the unequal distribution of resources and diverse environments allow students to con-

“The Woman is Not Always the Bad Guy”: Dominant Discourse and Resistance in the Lives of Battered Women

Feminist scholars promote an advocacy and social change approach that is rooted in centering womens knowledge and suggestions for change. This article centers and analyzes suggestions made by women staying in shelters for women who have been battered and explores the ways their perspectives reflect individualized or structural discourse and their solutions concentrate needs at the level of survival, equality, or transformation. The article finds that women have a range of perspectives and suggestions, and feminist scholars are encouraged to understand and address these from womens multiple positions while continuing to grapple with how to promote social change to improve womens lives.

Homelessness and the Mobile Shelter System: Public Transportation as Shelter

Those without housing often use public space differently than those who are housed. This can cause dilemmas for and conflicts among public officials as guardians of public space and goods. In this paper, we look at one such utilisation of space from the perspective of those who board 24-hour public transportation routes and ride the bus all night for shelter. We describe the results of a preliminary survey, observations and informal conversations with unhoused riders on the bus over three nights in one county in the United States. We found that a substantial number of the unhoused riders we surveyed used the bus as their main form of night-time shelter throughout the year, and that some have ridden the bus for shelter for many years. Men were more likely to say that they used the bus to sleep, while women rode the bus for safety. While some unhoused riders also utilised shelters or did not know about other shelter options, many actively choose the bus over emergency shelters. The potential implications of the study for service providers, researchers and policy-makers are addressed. Every night people in Santa Clara County, USA board 24-hour public transportation routes for shelter. While this social phenomenon exists in urban centres around the world, research or data about those who use buses or trains as shelter are limited. This is not surprising given that most research about people who are homeless takes place in shelters (Cunningham and Henry, 2008). Not only do we not know much about those who use this type of shelter strategy, the practice raises questions similar to those being asked about the rights of people without homes to access and use public space (such as libraries, public parks or plazas) as an alternative or in addition to separate services designed specifically to serve the unhoused.1 While laws are not being broken, policies and services are often being utilised by those who are unhoused in unintended ways, conflicting with how service providers, businesses and the housed envision or desire the

Social Desire Paths: An Applied Sociology of Interests

Using insights from landscape architecture on how pedestrian-driven “desire paths” inform the design of public landscapes, I offer a new concept for sociologists to consider—social desire paths. The social desire path metaphor puts attention on instances when there are disconnects between formal structures and what individuals actually do in the course of action. Conscious or not, such paths, which commence at the individual level, often become collective and leave an imprint on social structures. When identified, the paths then become informative as applied social science. Recognizing social desire paths in concrete behaviors provides an orienting frame for sociological research to shape policy as well as program creation and improvement at the organizational level. Social desire path analysis also offers a distinct sociological approach to capturing interests. To illustrate the benefits of reorienting sociological research in this way, I offer two examples and conclude by discussing how a focus on social desire paths provides a means for academic and applied social science to illuminate viable alternatives to existing social structures.

The Role of Catholic Schools in Reducing Educational and Economic Inequality

In this paper, I look specifically at Catholic colleges in the United States and compare their student enrollment and graduation rates to other types of colleges, and ask if Catholic colleges continue to play a role as levers of economic mobility for students, or if they are reproducing the social class status of their families. Combining institutional data from the College Scorecard and the Equality of Opportunity Project, my analysis shows that Catholic colleges in the U.S. have higher graduation rates than public and other private schools, but they enroll a lower proportion of students who are low income. Catholic colleges also enroll a smaller proportion of first-generation college students than public schools, but a higher percentage of students who identify as Hispanic than other private schools. Some Catholic colleges are primarily educating students whose families are from the highest income quintile, but the proportions vary greatly by school. The combined dataset provides an opportunity for Catholic colleges in the U.S. to examine the demographics of their students and to ask questions about how they want to live out their missions by the students they enroll and ultimately graduate.